


The Roof

by NotTilItsFinished (Pyrate0804)



Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV), The 100 (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Clexa Halloween Week, F/F, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 13:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12508032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyrate0804/pseuds/NotTilItsFinished
Summary: ~~~I can’t believe I got myself into a mess like this, again. I definitely should know better than to try to rescue the damsel in distress at this point. It never works out. Yet here I am, trapped on the roof of this department store, with a girl, with a sprained ankle and a bunch of walkers trying to break through the roof access door. Of course, there’s an access ladder on the other side of the building, but someone can barely walk, much less climb right now, so yeah, we’re stuck.~~~





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Number two of the Clexa Halloween Week prompts from Tumblr for me. I've been wanting to write a FtWD Lexark story for a while and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I'm trying first person perspective for this one. I feel like action reads better in first person, and there is a fair amount of Zombie killing in this one. Be warned that while I tried to keep the gore descriptions down, some of the images herein are pretty graphic.

I can’t believe I got myself into a mess like this, again. I definitely should know better than to try to rescue the damsel in distress at this point. It never works out. Yet here I am, trapped on the roof of this department store, with a girl, with a sprained ankle and a bunch of walkers trying to break through the roof access door. Of course, there’s an access ladder on the other side of the building, but someone can barely walk, much less climb right now, so yeah, we’re stuck.

 

“What’s your name anyway?” I ask the brunette sitting across the way.

 

“Alicia, Alicia Clark. What’s your name?” she says, wincing in pain as she shifts her weight, trying to get up.

 

I shake my head and rush over to her, saying, “Don’t try to get up yet. You need to elevate your ankle, and rest. That should help with the swelling.” The brunette settles against the ledge surrounding the building’s edge and slumps over, exhausted and defeated, as I raise her leg up to rest on my pack. “My name is Elyza Lex.”

 

Alicia looks up at me and smiles and now I know why I rushed to save this girl. She’s gorgeous, all sharp angles and subtle curves, and those eyes. They’re deep and reflective, but somehow, troubled and at ease all at once. I’m sure I’m blushing at the intimate eye contact, but Alicia seems just as smitten and I sit myself down beside her and say, “Tell me about yourself, Alicia. We got nothing but time, until your ankle feels better, anyway.”

 

The brunette isn’t really sure how to answer that at first. She scrunches her face up, with pursed lips and a crinkled forehead and asks, “Why do you wanna know?”

 

I can’t help but laugh, “Well, I did save your life, so I guess I’m just trying to determine whether you were worth it or not.”

 

Alicia huffs out a broken sigh and replies, “I’m nobody special really, especially now.”

 

“That can’t be true. No one is alive anymore that’s not special in some way,” I say, trying to reassure the girl next to me.

 

She seems bolstered, at least in some way, by that and says, “Well, I’m a sister. I’m an only daughter, I’m a step daughter. And I’m-”

 

I shake my head again because I can’t help it, and interrupt, “I asked who you are, not who you are in relation to others. What do you like? Music, art, science?”

 

“I like music, I guess. OH, I’ve still got some battery left on my iPod. You wanna listen to some music?” she asks excitedly.

 

She smiles and I swoon, never have I met a girl so beautiful and I can’t imagine saying no. I skootch in closer to her as I say, “Sure. But not rap or metal, I have standards.”

 

Alicia smiles again and offers me one of her earbuds. As the music starts to come through, I can’t stop myself from slipping in a little closer, so our sides are settled against each other. This moment seems so simple and yet so utterly absurd, listening to a band that’s probably never going to make another album. Hell, they’re probably all dead.

 

We listen to music for a while, but Alicia starts to get restless, shifting up against my shoulder. It’s almost like she’s still trying to get closer to me and so I pull my arm out from in between us and drape it over her shoulders. She immediately snuggles in against my side and releases a content sigh. We sit like that, pressed in close to each other, together, until the battery on her iPod dies. When the music stops I realize that her stomach is growling. I look down at her and she’s smiling sheepishly and I swoon all over again. She’s just so cute, looking up at me like that. I can’t not be into this.

 

I slowly extract myself from her cuddling, and shift over so I can get into my pack. I shift her injured leg off first and I can instantly feel her eyes on me. She watches as I pull out two cans of creamed corn and a couple sticks of dried meat. I offer her one of the cans, after I manage to get it open and one of the meat sticks. She puzzles at the meat and I say, “Horse. Found her a week ago, starving to death all penned up in a barn.” I pause, remembering the horrific smell that had come from that barn. The horse was still alive but the family that had once lived there were all dead and were crawling the walls of one of the horse stalls trying to get to the mare. I put those people out of their misery easily enough and the horse, too. But, no reason to waste all that meat. Luckily those people were really into their backyard grilling because the big smoker on the back deck had really helped the preservation process. I can tell Alicia really isn’t into the horse meat, so I add, “It’s not the best dinner, but it’s the best I’ve got. It’s not bad, mostly it just tastes burnt.”

 

She eyes it suspiciously and then tentatively puts one end in her mouth and bites. The meat isn’t super tough, kind of like beef jerky and after a minute or two, she takes another bite. “I guess, it’s ok. I’ve just never had horse meat before. Seems wrong, though,” she says after the second bite, cutting the burnt flavor with a slog of cold creamed corn right out of the can.

 

A little bit dribbles down her chin, and I can’t stop myself from brushing it off her skin with my thumb. She looks startled, but doesn’t flinch away. I brush the clean edge of my thumb over lips next and they part just as the digit presses flush against them. Her tongue flicks out and I almost lose it right there. The groan that escapes my throat when she sucks my thumb into her mouth is definitely obscene, but obviously it does the trick, because two seconds later, she’s releasing my thumb and capturing my lips instead. I’m a bit blown away by the sudden intimacy, but kissing her feels too good, too right, to stop. She tries to shift over to me and groans in pain, and I pull back. I look down immediately at her ankle and realize she tried to roll her weight over it, wanting to straddle me and I groan, too, more in frustration than anything. She smiles at me like she’s just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. I press a sweet kiss to her cheek and slump back a little, as I say, “Let’s finish eating, and then we can get more comfortable, ok?” She nods and we finish eating in almost silence… Almost, because a few of the dead are still pounding on the door on the other side of the roof.

 

When we’re done eating, I decide that I need to check the roof access door, especially if either one of us is going to get any sleep tonight. I check over the position of the rebar I slipped in to lock the door and it seems to be holding, but I really wish I had some chain and a lock. I cruise back over to my bag and dig around for a minute, fishing out a length of wire rope I found in a high school auditorium about a month ago. I run back over to the door and slip the cable around the door handles of both doors and use the attached carabiner to attach it back to itself. There’s no way they’re getting through that. I leave the rebar in just in case though.

 

I come back to find Alicia fiddling with something. She seems kind of secretive about it, so I keep myself busy setting up somewhere for us to sleep. I’ve got enough bedroll stuff to make a pretty decent place to sleep on, but that won’t leave much for us to curl up under. I rearrange things a little and still come up with only one blanket left over for the both of us. I can hear Alicia chuckling behind me and I turn to her, like “What?”

 

She simply smiles at me and boldly says, “I don’t know if that kiss was too subtle for you, so let me spell it out. I’m into you. You’re pretty, and nice and you saved me. I’m more than happy to, uh, to share your bed, too, if you want…”

 

Alicia seems to get a little shy by the end of her little speech and I quickly cross to her, wanting to erase that unease I can hear in her voice. “I- I’d like that very much, Alicia. I think it’s all ready, then. You need some help getting up?” She nods and I scoop my hands under her arms and pull her up gently, being sure not to let her put too much weight on her ankle. We shuffle back over to the pallet of blankets and I let Alicia choose which side she wants. She settles in on the side farthest from the roof door and I can’t help the sigh of relief that escapes. She turns up to look at me and I say, “I’ll feel a lot more comfortable if I can keep me in between you and that door.” I gesture over my shoulder to the door in question. It flexes open just a smidge before the wire rope catches and cinches on itself, keeping the doors firmly closed. “I mean, it looks stable for now, but you never know what could happen,” I add as I turn back to Alicia.

 

She’s staring up at me and the way she’s looking at me makes me think she’s got some plan cooking in her head. I can see the light dancing behind her eyes, like she wants something but she’s not sure how to ask for it. When I squat down next to our makeshift bed, she shifts and for just a second I think this is exactly why I saved this girl. Her eyes connect with mine and I’m immediately lost in her world. I can see her heart beating and her breath curling around inside her. I can see all the way to her soul and I’m sure she can see mine, too. It only takes another brief moment before her lips meet mine and she’s forcing me back onto the blankets and to be honest I wouldn’t want it any other way.

 

It turns out Alicia’s boldness only lasts for a few minutes before she’s too tired to even hold herself over me. I watch as her eyes droop in between kisses and whispered words. I can feel her heart rate slowing as her chest lays against mine. I can tell she exhausted and so I slide out from under her a little, shifting her body so she’s lying next to me. She’s got this disappointed look on her face and I brush some hair away from her face with shaky fingers. Sex sounds like a great way to end my day, but not when Alicia is this tired. “Alicia, we don’t have to do this right now. Like I said earlier, we got nothing but time. We’re safe here,” I whisper into the air between us.

 

Her eyes blink closed for a long second and her cute little smile resurfaces. “I- I want to, but I am really tired. I w-wouldn’t want to disappoint you,” she breaths as she snuggles in against my neck.

 

I shake my head, so she can feel my answer as much as hear it. “Alicia, I don’t think you could disappoint me if you tired. Get some sleep, I’ll still be here in the morning,” I say as I brush a little more hair from her face and place a sweet kiss to her temple. She sighs contentedly against my chest and not a minute later she’s fast asleep. I keep watch for a while, simply listening to the world go by.


	2. Chapter 2

The morning light is pretty harsh when you only get a couple hours of broken sleep, especially when there’s nowhere to hide from it. Most of the night, I spent watching over Alicia. I won’t act like I was able to stay up all night just watching her sleep. I’m not that big of a romantic, but I did watch her as she slept, as she dreamed. I did wonder if it was me she was dreaming of.

 

She stirs, still cuddled against my side, and I know this time she’ll wake up. She shifted many times in the night, but always closer to me, tighter into my side and at one point moving so close she nearly crawled on top of me again. This time though she’s shifting away and I know that means that the night really is over. Her eyes blink open and I’m right there to whisper, “Good morning.”

 

Her smile is like the sunlight, bright and open, and it’s a little harsh too. She must not be a morning person. She blinks at me a few times before she mumbles, “Mormmun.”

 

I can’t help the little laugh and smile as I say, “Want some coffee?”

 

Her eyes bug open at that. Now she’s awake. “Coffee? How do you have coffee?” she asks, looking around like she’s hoping that just by saying the word coffee some would appear.

 

“Stay in bed, I’ll be right back,” I say as I extract myself from her limbs. I shuffle over to my pack again, my eyes shifting over to the roof access door. They aren’t moving anymore, from pressure on the other side, so that’s a good sign. I riffle through my bag pulling out a ratty Ziploc bag filled with drink packets. I grab my biggest water bottle, one of three full ones. I’ll have to set the tarp today for dew collection tonight. I pull out a tin mug I found in a sporting goods store last week and begin mixing an instant coffee packet with the mug full of water. I stir and stir and stir, and hoping it’s all mixed in, I return to Alicia and offer her the cup.

 

She accepts it gratefully and sniffs it. True it’s not a fresh, hot cup of gourmet coffee, but it’s not bad. She tentatively takes a sip and smiles. I realize I’ll do just about anything to see that smile. She looks happy, carefree, like we’re not trapped on a roof, in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and yeah, I’m hooked. She swallows another, bigger sip and says, “This isn’t bad, Elyza. Kinda tastes like the real thing. I just wish you had some sugar.”

 

I smile wickedly at that and rejoin her in our makeshift bed. I pull her in for a sweet kiss and say, “How’s that for sugar?”

 

She grumbles as she says, “God, that was cheesy.”

 

I immediately retort, “Yeah, but I can tell you liked it.”

 

Her lips purse together for a long moment before she reluctantly smiles that beautiful smile and says, “Yeah, ok, you got me there.”

 

We chat for a little while, about nothing important, really, as Alicia finishes her coffee. I move back over to my pack and realize there are only four packets of instant coffee left and decide against having a cup of my own. I check through my small stock pile of food, too. There are plenty of pieces of dried meat left, along with another two cans of corn, a can of peaches and the mystery can. I haven’t been desperate enough to open that one yet, but if I don’t get a chance to scavenge today or early tomorrow we’re going to be opening it for breakfast tomorrow. I bring a couple pieces of meat and the can of peaches back to Alicia and say, “Well, for breakfast we have more dried meat and some peaches to split.” I hand Alicia a piece of the meat before I open the peaches. She is happily munching away and I don’t want to say it but I have to, “Also, I’m gonna have to venture down to the surface if we wanna eat past tomorrow morning. I figure we’ll need at least a couple more days’ worth of food and I want to look for a pharmacy or sporting goods store to see if I can find a brace or wrap for your ankle.”

 

Alicia stiffens at the mere mention of me leaving her, but she takes a couple deep breaths before she replies, “I- I don’t want you to leave… What if you don’t come back?”

 

I smile at her and say, “Don’t worry I always come back. In fact, the earlier I head out the sooner I’ll be back too. I’m gonna leave everything I don’t need here, so if I’m not back before dark you’ll at least have some meat and more corn for dinner. Also, I have a project for you if you think you’re up for it.”

 

I can see the light come right back to Alicia’s eyes when I mention the project and she says, “Anything. I’d love to feel useful while you’re gone.”

 

I explain all about how to set up the water collection system I have, which mostly just consists of an opaque tarp, some twine and a 2-liter bottle with the top cut off. I talk with my hands a lot and Alicia probably spends more time watching me than she does what I’m doing, but when I ask her to repeat my instructions, she simplifies them, “String the tarp up so that it bellies around one corner and then position the bottle under it. Got it.”

 

She putters around, hobbling mostly as she begins to set that up as I empty all but one small water bottle, my compass, a ball of extra twine, and the empty cans from dinner last night and this morning wrapped in an extra t-shirt. I strap on the tactical knife I usually carry and settle my only gun, a beat-up revolver with my only three bullets, into the makeshift shoulder holster I rigged up with an old belt and some woman’s long-lost leather clutch. I check my pockets in my pants and my windbreaker, securing the last of my lighters, a pack of matches and a handkerchief, because you never know when you’ll need an improvised tourniquet or when you’ll just need to blow your nose. I turn back to Alicia and find her watching me. I move over to her and she looks nervous. I place my hands delicately on her hips and she drapes her arms over my shoulders. She’s the first to speak, “I’d like it very much if you’d come back, before dark.” I shrug and she pulls a hand under my dipped chin. “Really, Elyza, I- I need you to come back.”

 

I press in to place quick kiss to her cheek, not wanting to overstep, in case she doesn’t want to continue whatever we’ve got going on, but she dips her head and catches my lips with her own and when we break apart, I whisper, “May me meet again.”

 

Something flashes in her eyes at my words, but I try not to make anything of it, slinging my mostly empty pack over my shoulder and moving over towards the ladder set into the south side of the building. She starts to follow me, but I simply shake my head and then nod towards her ankle. “Work on the water system and then rest, try to relax. I’ll be back before you even have a chance to miss me.”

 

She grips my wrist tightly, pulling me back to her and says, “Too late, so hurry.” She presses a kiss to my cheek and I can’t help the blush that flares over them at the tender gesture. I move to mount the ladder for the probably 50-foot climb. Our eyes meet one more time as I begin my climb, and a lifetime of words couldn’t describe how much I wanted to keep my promise to come back to this beautiful girl.

 

~~~

 

When my feet hit the street, I’m immediately ducking and moving in between the abandoned cars. I decide the path of least resistance is the way to go today, so I continue south for a few blocks, before I come upon my first walker of the day. He was an overweight man in his fifties at some point, now it’s mostly just a mindless monster. There’s just one, well for now, so I decide to put him down before he can make any noise and attract others. All I can think about as I creep behind him is how strange it is that some of the walkers tend to have only some of their senses still intact, like the young one I came across the other day. I tripped over a shopping basket in a stripped-out grocery store, right behind it, made a whole bunch of noise and it didn’t even turn around. But, the second I got close enough to be seen, it perked right up, nearly ripping off one of my arms in the process. Thank all that is holy, I was wearing the magazine arm guards that day. Note to self, look for new magazines and tape.

 

I drop this big one with no scuffle, managing to keep behind it the whole time. I spot three more down the next side street and keep moving. Easy enough to take one or two, but three or more is to be avoided at all costs. With only three bullets, any more than two is too risky. Luckily on the next block there are no more and a mom and pop’s pharmacy called Griffin’s. It looks to be mostly intact, so I slip up to the door and tapping lightly on the glass with my knife. After a few tense seconds hunkered against the door listening, I don’t hear any movement inside. I push against the wood and glass and it eventually gives, the door-jam groaning slightly as the door swung on the hinges. I hold in the doorway listening again and still no movement, so I press on, moving inside.

 

The store does seem to be picked over, but I do manage to find two different ankle braces, an A.C.E. bandage. I consider checking over in the pharmacy area proper, but it looks like it’s been totally cleaned out. I’m rummaging through the disheveled aisles when I hear something shift near the back of the store. I stop dead, waiting for anything. After a long minute of standing stock still, I hear it again and decide against my better judgement to check it out. I shuffle down one aisle, before coming to a T intersection in front of the food and drink coolers in the back of the store. That’s when I see it, a torn hand groping the glass from the inside of one of the freezers, near the end of the row of coolers. I consider my options. I could just move on, there’s probably not much left here in the way of meds, but some anti-inflammatories would certainly help in Alicia’s healing process. I could try to pick my way through the rest of the aisles as quietly as possible. Or… I could put that thing out of its misery and have the run of the whole store.

 

It’s just one, I reason, and I could probably just pull it through the freezer door. It’ll probably get caught up in the racks inside and have a hard time getting to me and I can… Just react. A second later, the glass of one of the coolers breaks through scattering glass everywhere and that when I realize that while I could only see there are at least two more, one of which is moving on me like I’m their next five-star meal. I deflect that one, just as another one crashes into me. It’s a crazy couple of seconds as I struggle to stay upright. I manage to get that one down, but the one that was pawing at the glass a few moments ago is now charging through the broken door. I spin that one to the ground, but now I’m off balance and I start to tumble, tripping over the first one I sent down and I end up in a heap with two of them still kicking and scrapping at me. I avoid being bitten, but only narrowly as I drive my knife in deep in one. I’m holding the throat of the one that’s still moving. I drive it back a bit, adrenaline surging, and I barely manage to plunge my knife into its eye before it has the chance to overpower me.

 

I lie there, only able to pant and gasp for breath for a few minutes. There’s no new noise coming from the cooler, so I know it’s safe again, at least for the moment. I glance over in the direction of the front door and thank my lucky stars I remembered to close it on my way in. Eventually, I manage to get to my feet again. I fumble my way over the three, now really, dead bodies on the floor. I decide that there’s no way there can be more inside. I’ve made far too much noise and moved around far too much for any others in the building wouldn’t have made themselves known by now.

 

I lazily graze the aisles now. I find a couple of travel packs of ibuprofen, a bottle of apple juice that’s only out of date by three months and a bunch of individual band-aids, that were obviously in a box at some point, but instead I had to pick them up one by one off the floor. Everything else that’s left is stuff like diabetes test strips, some random greeting cards, a couple of rolls of toilet paper and a teddy bear holding a small heart with the words “Get Well Soon” embossed on the front. I scoop up the toilet paper and after a moment of thought I pick up the bear as well, stuff everything in my pack. The bear takes up quite a bit of room, but it’s going to worth the look on Alicia’s face when I get it back to her.

 

I do a cursory check of the behind-the-counter drugs and find nothing of use. The main door of walk-in cooler is locked from the outside with a bit of chain and a padlock. I go back into the front of the store and immediately locate the health and beauty section. It’s been picked over like every other section, but after a few minutes rummaging through the detritus I find exactly what I’m looking for, two bobby pins. I make my way back to the cooler door and with only minimal effort I manage to pick the padlock and slip the chain free from the door’s latch. I keep the chain and padlock for later, draping it across my body bandolier style.

 

I take a couple deep breaths before I swing the door open, knife at the ready and find one of the most gruesome sights I’ve ever seen. The floor is covered in blood and feces, as are one of the walls. There’s also some slung up on the ceiling. There are what looks like two bodies in various sized pieces strewn out about the room. It looks like someone locked these people in here with those things, but she wouldn’t wish that fate on her worst enemy. I don’t venture any further into the cooler, simply closing the door and moving back towards the front of the store, towards fresher air. I guess I didn’t notice the smell at first, but now it’s everywhere in the store and I’ve got to get out before I lose what’s left of breakfast in my stomach.

 

I approach the front door and peak out the center window. There’s nothing of note on the street, so I pull the door open just enough to squeeze my way through. I move quickly down the street again, picking my way through abandoned or wrecked cars. I come to the next corner and while there’s nothing to the left, there are a dozen or so walkers down the street to the right. They seem to be fixated on a single car, pounding on the windows and doors. There’s probably someone in that car, but as much I want to help, I am getting myself back to that roof, so whoever that is… they’re on their own.

 

I skirt my way across the intersection, thankfully not attracting any attention from the walkers just 25 feet away. The next block does have a small, regional chain style grocery store and a deli on one side, but the other side is an electronics store. I approach the deli first and upon looking through the first window I see quite a few things still on shelves. I start to get excited before I really have a chance to take in anything other than the possibility of more food. I’m already at the door before I notice the crawler on the floor now scrapping its broken fingernails over the door-jam. Crawlers are no big deal as long as you see them before they’re dragging you down. I hunch slightly resting my butt against the door jam and pull the door open just enough for it to get its head caught in the door. Two good stomps and it stops moving. I scan the street and then the inside of the deli and with nothing moving in either location I slip inside the store.

 

The floor is slippery and sort of sticky, god only knows what’s under foot right now. I try not to look too closely at the floor and swept my gaze over the shelves along the wall. A couple of individual sized bags of pretzels look edible, along with a couple of small tins of fake cheese sauce, one jalapeno, the other regular cheddar. That’s when I feel like I just hit the jackpot, spotting an unopened 1-liter sized water bottle that had rolled under the shelving unit at some point. I grimace as I get on my hands and knees to recover it. I officially can’t wait until it rains. Rain showers might be cold most of the time, but at least you sort of get clean.

 

I glance around the rest of the deli’s front area finding nothing else worth the risk of eating. I’m hesitant about that swinging door that leads to the back. There’s no noise coming from back there, though I’ve been mostly quiet in here up to this point. There’s no securing that door and then trying the tap trick. There’d be no stopping two or three from pushing their way through a door like that to get to me. I remember the tin cans in my pack. I squish may way over to the counter, sit the pack on top and extract one of the cans from my extra t-shirt. I position myself so I’m hidden by the counter and then I chuck the can at the far end of the store. I wait and I listen and I wait and I listen. Nothing. From inside or out. Great.

 

I scoop my pack up and settle it on my back before I pick my way towards the back. I push the door open slowly, barely managing to keep the double swing hinges from squeaking. There’s not a lot of light, so pull my matches out of my pocket. I train my eyes on where I think the center of the room is and strike a match. I get probably three or four seconds to glance around. The back is totally disheveled, stuff strewn everywhere, cans and bottles and packages and bits of cardboard litter the floor. I don’t get much of a chance to take in the details. It’s too much for just three or four seconds and without a flashlight or a torch there’s no way I’m searching in there with any efficiency. That’s also not a one-person job, dark, tight, enclosed space with no way to secure the door. I need a lookout. I mark this place on my mental map as I make my way back to the front door. There’s probably food and tools and maybe even stuff that could be turned into weapons back there, I just need to be safe about searching it.

 

I slip out the front door easily enough, and scuttle directly down the side walk along the building to the grocery store’s door. I glance in the windows, in between glances back to the street. There are a couple of walkers down the way a bit and across the street, but they seem mostly unaffected by my presence. I press myself up against the door and listen, hard. I didn’t see anything, I don’t hear anything. Here I go. I push the door open and thankfully it’s one of those with aluminum hinges, so no squeaky rust. The store is laid out simply, with all the aisles facing the front of the store. The security mirrors in each corner of the room are a nice bonus, because within the first two seconds of being inside I already know I’m not alone. I can see one swaying in place at the near end of aisle two and another one all the way on the other side of the store at the far end of aisle ten. I like the odds, they’re separated and apparently unaware of me so far and aisle two is closer. I immediately begin creeping over towards the first walker, drawing my knife as I go. The first one goes down, way easier than it should have, too. It didn’t react as I slipped my blade up into the back of its head. I lay it down as easy as I can, quickly shuffling forward to the closest corner of the store. The view from the mirrors isn’t as good here and I can’t spot the other walker in any of them.

 

Where I am, seems like a pretty good spot to wait for it to come to me, though. There’s nowhere in a place like this to create a bottle neck so there’s only one way to me so the corner will have to do. At least here, it can’t blindside me. I wait and listen again. I can hear it shuffling closer, dragging one foot, moving at a lazy pace, like it’s not sure whether I’m actually here or not. I can use that and I move to intercept it at the end of the aisle I’m know sure it’s on. I take a peak around the corner on the shelving unit that makes up one side of the aisle and there it is, two shuffling steps away. I take in one steadying breath before it levels with me, but I’m ready and the knife slides right in to its ear. It drops and I wait and listen again, slowing breath and heartrate from the latest adrenaline surge.

 

There’s nothing, no movement, no walkers, just me and a mess. I start to move through the shelves, checking the canned food aisle first. It takes a bit of digging but I do manage to procure a couple of cans of bargain brand mixed vegetables. I sigh when I find a new mystery can, the label on this one long gone. I sling my pack over to my front and slip the cans inside. Mystery food is still food. I rummage through the rest of the crap the world left behind and just when I think there’s nothing left here of value at all, I spot a couple of plastic packages hanging from a clip strip partially obscured by an endcap. I’m so excited when I figure out what it is, four individual size packets of salted peanuts. Protein is always the hardest thing to find and they look pretty ok, so I immediately pop one open and pour half the contents in my mouth. They’re a little dry, not oily like they used to be, but they’re not rotten, so I’ll take it. I consider eating the other half of the pack, but deicide to save it, folding over the top and slipping it into my back pocket. I pull the other pack off the strip and shove them down in my pack.

 

I make my way back to the front, swinging the now heavy pack onto my back. I decide to check the impulse section and behind each counter, looking for lighters of course, but also, God, maybe cigarettes. I used to smoke a lot, but since the world ended, cigarettes have obviously become fewer and farther between, just like everything else. That doesn’t mean that the cravings just went away, though. I never really go out of my way to look for them anymore, but I’m here and there’s always a chance. I rummage around behind the first register I come to and don’t find anything except some extra receipt paper. I move around through the next one and the next one before I come to the customer service kiosk. I hold my breath as I push the stuff on the floor around with my foot. I spot that familiar blue and white cardboard box. I quickly bend down to pick it up and holy crap, it’s not even opened. These will last me a month, maybe two, easy. I know I shouldn’t be so excited about something that’s just going to kill me, but when the whole world is trying to kill me or eat me alive, cancer is really the least of my concerns. I start to straighten up to slip the smokes into my pocket and come face to face with something shiny and metal. “No fucking way,” I whisper as I pull the 9mm handgun from its resting place. “God, I love small towns,” I add as I eject the clip, finding it fully loaded with one in the chamber, 13 rounds. I swap this new pistol for my beat-up revolver in my shoulder holster, slipping the revolver in between my jeans and the back of my belt, most of the barrel resting inside my pocket. Feeling like that’s pretty secure, I riffle around in the same area of the counter for a minute or two longer and my fingers slide over smooth wood and then a small cardboard box. “Wow, these people must have really been into security and loss prevention,” I snark to no one. I do realize I’m talking to myself at this point and that’s not really the safest of plans. I pull out the baseball bat that was wedged under the counter. I give it a practice swing and while I know it’s a powerful weapon, capable of destroying a walker, it also takes a lot of muscle and endurance to use one with any accuracy and efficacy for long. I take it along anyway though, even if it really isn’t anything more than a discard weapon. One and done; well, maybe two and done. I stick it down into the drink holder on the side of my bag and then loosely secure the top with a bit of twine. I reach back under the counter one last time to find out what the small cardboard box contains and I am floored by how no one else has discovered this little treasure trove. A 50-round box of 9mm ammo, with only 13 bullets missing. I sigh in relief at finally having a reliable weapon with some ammo to go along with it.

 

I decide not to push my luck any further in the grocery store, knowing I’ve already spent too much time inside. That proves to be the correct assumption when I peek out the grimy glass door to find several walkers cruising up the street in a pack. Well, cruising might be an exaggeration, shuffling and stumbling is probably a more accurate description. They don’t spot me and I hold my breath as they pass. I stay perfectly still for several more minutes before I gently pull the door open.

 

The small pack of walkers have moved off down an alley, unfortunately it’s in the direction I need to go to get back to the department store. I could try going around, but there’s risk there, too, because it’s when a while since I laid eyes on the larger pack that had surrounded that car. I decide to push straight up the street, keeping as quiet as possible, but ready to run at a moment’s notice. I make it almost to the alley with the access ladder before I realize the alley the small pack ducked into feeds right into the alley I need.

 

There they are, all seven of them, looking at me like they can’t wait to take me to dinner. I stop dead in the mouth of the alley. Not much choice here, try to beat them to the ladder and or circle the block and hope I don’t attract any more of them. I glance over my shoulder to find at least another half a dozen shuffling up the street from the direction I just came from. I swing the baseball bat out of its makeshift holster on the side of my pack and kick off the ground, going from dead stop to full sprint as fast I can. I hurdle over a tipped over trash can and I’m moving fast and easy. I make it to the ladder just before the first walker gets within swinging distance. It slams against the wall as I use my momentum to swing the bat with very little effort. It bounces off the wall and right into its friends, giving me just enough time to get three steps up on the ladder. The next player steps up to the plate and I hold onto the ladder with one hand, swing the bat down with the other. That one stumbles off, not down but maybe dazed. ‘Do zombies get dazed?’ I think as I scramble up another couple of rungs on the ladder. I’m just out of reach as the next one crashes into the base of the ladder. It seems pretty stable, even with the wave of bodies crashing into the base. I look up and expect to see Alicia looking over the side at me, but she’s not there. I figure she’s probably resting. I simply re-holster the bat and start to climb.


	3. Chapter 3

I crest the top of the ladder and I’m instantly more scared than I’ve ever been. Alicia is nowhere to be seen. There’s really nowhere to hide on a flat roof, except maybe behind the rusting out air conditioners or the small outcropping that covers the stairs that lead to the roof. My eyes fixate there, and immediately I know something is wrong. The cable I used to secure the door last night is hanging loosely from one side of the double doors. I hustle over to where my bedroll is still laid out, looking all around for any sign of Alicia. Nothing, no signs of struggle, no blood smears, no dismembered body parts. ‘Why would she leave the relative safety of the roof and head back down into the department store if she wasn’t being chased by someone. I settle my heavy pack and the heavy chain bandolier on top of the bedroll and pull the new 9mm from my shoulder holster.

 

I check around the back of the old A/C units just to be sure Alicia’s not hiding. She’s not, of course, but I had to be sure before I make my way back into that dark stairwell again. ‘Why would she go back down there?’ I think again as I approach the door, steadying my nerves a little before pulling the door open. A body falls out and I realize instantly, it’s Alicia. She slumps into my arms, she’s covered in blood of varying colors, some red and fresh, some brown and clotted and speckled with gray bits. She must have taken out at least a few before she had to retreat. I immediately pull her through the door and re-secure it with the wire rope. I quickly check over Alicia and find she is at least still breathing. I pull her over to the bedding and quickly shove the pack and chain off to make room for her limp body.

 

I stare down at her for just a second, she looks so peaceful, like she doesn’t have a care in the world, like she just be sleeping. I shake off the creeping despair and begin triage. I pull off Alicia’s blood soak shirt and pants. It does not help my already distracted mind that she’s not wearing a bra, but I focus in on inspecting every inch of her skin, looking for teeth marks. I find some scrapes just in the crook between her shoulder blade and her spine, I find a couple more along one leg, below the knee, and I find a small cut just above her right eyebrow. That’s the source of all the blood. It’s very small but head wounds bleed. There are just too many capillaries there to not hit at least one. Thankfully, I don’t spot anything even closely resembling a bite mark.

 

I whip out my handkerchief and grab the unopened bottle of water from the deli, figuring it’s probably the cleanest water we have and begin to clear the drying blood from around the wound on her face, trying to get a better idea of how deep it is. Of course, it is actually pretty deep. I pull my pack over beside me as the wound begins oozing blood again. I rummage through the small compartments in the front until I find my sewing kit, which is really just one needle, a spool of green thread and a couple of miss-matched buttons. The needle seems sharp enough though and I proceed with stitching the wound closed. I am so thankful that Alicia doesn’t wake up in the middle of that. Getting quick and dirty stitches with no anesthetic is not something you just smile through. I check over the scrapes on her back and leg next and they look like something she got when she tripped or got pushed up against something. I guess I’ll have to wait for the answers to what happened there.

 

~~~

 

And I wait and wait. I wait all night and into the next day, before Alicia’s eyes finally flutter open. She blinks at the glare of the sun like it hurts and I shield her eyes with my body, leaning over her, checking over the cut as well as her. She coughs and I immediately shift to get her some water. She tries to sit up and mostly succeeds. I only have to prop her up a little. She grimaces and shifts against me a little. That’s when I realize I’m putting pressure on her scraped up shoulder with my body. I shift slightly too and eventually, Alicia relaxes into me. “How- How are you feeling?” I ask when I think she’s coherent enough to answer.

 

She coughs first, clearing her throat before she says, “I- I’ve been better, but I’m ok. Are- are you ok?”

 

“Well, I’ve been worried sick for the last 12 hours or so, but you’re awake now, so there’s that,” I reply, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice, but obviously some of it seeps through anyway.

 

Alicia cringes a little and says, “I’m sor-sorry I made you worry. I- I was trying to get to my bag. I got it about halfway up the stairs before I stepped down on my ankle wrong and stumbled. I- I fell and got scraped up. I made it back to the door though, crawling up the stairs, but I made it.” She looks around and when she doesn’t see what she’s looking for, she tries to get up, only to immediately slump against the bedding again.

 

“Alicia, you need to rest. What are you looking for?” I ask, as she settles down.

 

“My bag, I was looking for my bag. I ha- have stuff in there that we could use, food and stuff,” she replies quietly, already sort of slipping back towards sleep. Her eyes shoot open as I start to shift away and she chokes out, “Don’t… don’t leave me again.”

 

I take her hand in mine and with all the sincerity I can muster, I say, “I won’t. I won’t leave you again.”

 

She slumps off to sleep again, her body obviously forcing her to take the rest it needs. I move over to my pack and pull the ‘Get Well’ teddy bear out and tuck him up under her arm. I move back over to the roof access door. There’s still no movement or sound coming from the other side, so I slip the cable from around the door handles and peer inside. Sure enough, there is Alicia’s bag. I pull it out into the light, before re-securing the doors. I pull the heavy pack over to where Alicia is sleeping and settle in to wait again.

 

~~~

 

It’s dark when Alicia wakes again. I manage to get a little sleep, but I’m definitely tired. I should know better than to let myself get this tired. We’re safe here, but for how long. I watch as her eyes open again and she smiles and I can’t help but to mirror it. “Do you want some water?” I ask, already shifting to get up to get some. She watches me move over to my little collection system, as I collect the cut off 2-liter and bring her the evening’s bounty. It’s not much really only a couple of swallows, but it’s enough.

 

“Thanks, that really works, huh?” she says, after the water is gone.

 

“Yeah, it works better if it’s set up somewhere with a lot of vegetation, like a field or a backyard, but it’s enough,” I say as I take the 2-liter back and set it back under the tarp, ready for the morning. I move back over to Alicia as she’s starting to sit up. She groans and I’m scooting across the roof to her. I get to her just as she’s reaching into her pack and I add, “Do you want some help with that?”

 

She looks up at me a little sheepishly and nods, pushing the bag towards me. “There’s at least another day’s worth of food in there for both of us and something special. You’ll know it when you see it,” she says as I start to riffle through the bag.

 

I pull out a couple of cans of vegetable soup, three packets of ramen noodles and some instant potatoes. There’s a little package wrapped in cheesecloth. I pull that out next and find it’s actually cheese. It’s very hard, like aged parmesan and I can’t stop myself from smelling it. It’s like heaven, something I thought I’d never see again. “Wh-Where’d you get this?” I ask kind of baffled that something like this could have survived the last several months just sitting on a shelf.

 

She laughs, a little nervously, and says, “We passed through a still functioning farm, maybe a week ago. They said as long as it’s not green, it’s safe to eat.”

 

It takes me a second to process what she’s just said, as I ramble a loud, “A farm? Where?”

 

She’s still laughing a little as she replies, “About 30 miles west of here, just outside a little town called Polis.”

 

“How come you didn’t stay there?” I ask bluntly, not really thinking about what the answer could be.

 

“They, uh, they got o-overrun the third night we were there. My mom and I were sleeping in the truck that night, it- it was raining and we didn’t want to sleep in the tent. By the time we woke up, there were too m-many of them, to-” Alicia manages to get that far before her voice gives out.

 

I instantly move closer, wrapping her in my arms, because I know how she feels. Everyone left alive has lost someone, and I’m no different. “I-I’m sorry, Alicia. W-where’s your mom now?” I ask quietly, hoping that I’m no pushing too hard.

 

She chokes on her words at first, but manages a quiet, “We got separated. I-I was for-forced into this department store, but- but she left. Said she’d be back, she hasn’t come back.”

 

“Alicia, which way did your mom go when she ran?” I ask quickly, because something sticks in my brain. That car, with all the walkers around it, with someone inside. It’s too much to just be a coincidence.

 

“Uh… We were coming into town from the north, and she kept going down the street,” Alicia says, dreamily, like she’s trying to remember something that happened years ago, instead of days. She looks so tired again.

 

“So, she was headed south?” I ask, hoping my fears won’t be correct. Hoping that I didn’t just abandon this girl’s mother without even thinking about trying to help her.

 

Alicia thinks about it for a second and then confirms, “Yeah, that sounds right. I- I w-wish-” Her voice breaks again, as sob escapes her lips, and I can see the tears rolling down her face in the shallow moonlight.

 

I pull her in close and hug her until her sobs have abated. If I thought she looked tired before, she looks down right exhausted now. I have to tell her what I’ve seen and what I’m going to do about it. I’m not sure she’ll retain anything I tell her right now, but I have to try though, and I say, “Alicia, I need you to listen to me. I- I think I know where your mom is, but- but the situation isn’t good. I’m gonna go back to where I think I saw her and see if I can bring her back here, but that means I have to leave again. Can you handle that?”

 

She looks like I just stabbed her teddy bear and she clutches it tight, so I try to reassure her, “It’s dark out, I should be able to move a little easier through the streets. I- I always come back, right? That’s what I said, and I meant it. If your mom’s out there, I’ll bring her back too, ok?”

 

Alicia could only nod and look away, like she can’t bear to look at me, because I’m leaving her. I can’t lose my resolve on this though. I know what it’s like to not know what happened to a family member and the weight of those worries is still wearing on me. I give her a quick squeeze and then help her settle back on to the bedroll. “Just get some sleep and hopefully I’ll be back by the time you wake up.”

 

~~~

 

Well, I’m right about at least one thing. It is easier to move through the streets with such little light. I left almost everything behind. This is search and rescue not a resupply, so all I’m carrying are weapons and a hip flask of water. I cruise in between the cars and trucks on the road, hustling down the street. Not a walker in sight so far. I reach the drug store, again and know I’m getting close. I slow to a creep and peer around the corner of the building. I instantly spot four walkers still bumping against the doors of that same car and a little hope sparks in my chest. If she was dead they’d have all moved on by now. I just have to figure out how to take on all four at once. It’s doable if I use the gun, but the more noise I make the more of them there will be, as always, so I wait and watch.

 

I can probably get two of them down before the other two can get around the car. If they go in the same direction around the car, I’m good. They’ll line up on each other and I can use their general lack of fine motor skills to tangle them up together, slowing them down enough to put them down. But… if they go in opposite directions, one around the front and one around the back, I’m humped. I’ll have to use the gun, then. Well, hopefully, Alicia’s mom will be in good enough shape to where I won’t have to carry her and we can get away before more show up.

 

I begin my approach, knife in my left hand, my dominant hand and the 9mm in my right hand. I don’t plan on shooting right handed, but it’s faster for me to switch hands than it is to try to quick draw out of the clutch holster. I creep along between two cars, narrowly avoiding stumbling over a break in the pavement when I look up to check my surroundings. No new walkers in my field of vision, so I begin my final advance. I slip up behind the first one, driving my knife deep into its skull before twisting the knife slightly and pulling it out just as quickly. The others notice the new movement and the one on my side of the car turns towards his dead friend and I side step. Its attention wavers to me, but before it can even really react to my presence my knife is buried deep in its temple. The knife doesn’t come out as easily as I want it to and I fumble it as the second walker falls to the ground. I lose my grip and now I’m left with only the gun and two advancing walkers. Of course, they don’t go the easy way either, one shuffling around the hood, bumping the car every step. The other seems hung up though, as it tries to get around the trunk of the car.

 

I instantly move towards that one. If it’s hung up it’s a much easier target and that’ll put distance between the mobile one and myself. I get around the back end of the car and immediately see why that one can get moving. Part of its pant leg is caught in the door and I use that to my advantage. I slip the gun from one hand to the other, gripping it by the barrel and with all my strength I slam the handle against the side of it head. It makes a wet squelching sound, but the damn thing is still moving. I hit it a second time and then a third, before it finally slumps against the side of the car.

 

The last one is just starting to make it around the trunk, when the lid shoots open and out falls a blonde-haired woman. The quick glimpse I get of her face and I instantly know this is Alicia’s mother. They’re not dead ringers for each other, but the all the angles look right. She stumbles a bit before one of her hands rises to grip the last walker’s shoulder and the other hand comes crashing in from the other side with a fist sized rock clutched tightly in her grip. The walker goes down in one blow, but it keeps twitching. I move quickly to finish it off, bracing myself against the car as a land a hard stomp to the side of its head.

 

We’re both breathless, but I’m not stupid enough to think we’re not still in danger. “I know where Alicia is. Come with me?” I whisper as I scoot back around to the second walker I killed to wrestle my knife out of the side of its head as quietly as I can.

 

The woman is slinging a bag over her shoulder from the trunk and is looking at me like I’ve just told her I have her favorite flavor of ice cream or something, a smile splitting her face open from ear to ear. She hoarsely whispers back, “A-Alicia, yes.”

 

I quickly offer her my hip flask. She looks at it like I’m crazy and I mouth, “Water.” She greedily accepts it then and drains half of it before she realizes what she’s doing. She shoves the remainder back into my hand and I force it back into my pocket as we crouch and crawl our way back to the roof, to Alicia.

 

~~~

 

I’m so thankful when we finally get to the top of the ladder. Alicia’s mom seemed to weaken the closer we got to the alley with the ladder. I didn’t think she had it in her to make it to the top, but here we are. Her slumps against the sidewall immediately, but I cruise right past her, kind of desperate to check on Alicia.

 

When I finally get to her side, I realize she hasn’t moved at all. The search and rescue had probably only taken an hour at most and I am so thankful that I managed to get back before she woke up. I gently squeeze one of her arms, trying to wake her easily. She shocks awake anyway, but when she looks up at me like she’s never been happier to be woken up. “Hey, I’ve got someone here to see you. You think you can sit up?”

 

“Yeah, w-where is she?” Alicia says as she pushes herself up, coming to rest with her hands behind her.

 

I wave over to her mother and when the woman sees Alicia for the first time, I know all that risk was worth it. I just wish I had done this sooner. She immediately scrambles to her feet, and with renewed vigor she crosses to her daughter and they hug for a long time. Neither one saying anything, just clutching tightly to each other, simply sharing the moment. I get a little uncomfortable just watching them and I move over to my pack and pull out a scrap of cloth, one that’s too dirty to be used as a bandage and proceed to wipe as much of the gore as I can from my knife and the handgun. I busy myself with that for a little while. I can hear Alicia and mother whispering quietly to each other and the last thing I want is to intrude. Eventually, Alicia calls out, “Elyza, could you come over here?”

 

I groan a little as my muscles protest the movement, but I push through and approach the two women. Alicia instantly pulls me down to her when I’m close enough for her to reach. She pulls me close and then plants a slightly messy, slightly open-mouthed kiss on my lips. I’m a little too taken aback to kiss back right away. I glance nervously at Alicia’s mom, who has merely turned away slightly to offer us a little privacy. I kiss back then, realizing that this is want Alicia wants and her mom is ok with it. It’s another minute or so before Alicia’s mom finally clears her throat and Alicia reluctantly pulls back, panting, slightly out of breath.

 

I scramble to my feet, when Alicia urges me to, and I put out my hand and say, “I’m Elyza, Elyza Lex.”

 

“Madison, Madison Clark. I- I can’t thank you enough for taking care of Alicia, e-especially because I wasn’t there to do it,” Madison says, sounding a little ashamed.

 

“Hey, it’s ok. I- I really don’t mind the company. Alicia’s- she’s special,” I half-whisper as I lean in to try to assuage some of her guilt, placing my hand on her arm, comfortingly. She doesn’t react immediately and I think for just a second maybe she didn’t hear me.

 

“I- I know, just- just protect her… She’s- she’s all I’ve got left,” she finally whispers.

 

My response is immediate, “With my life, Madison, with my life.”


	4. Chapter 4

We spend the next few days recuperating, and relaxing, well as much as we could relax while essentially stuck on the roof of a department store during a zombie apocalypse. When the rain came the second night Madison was with us, I got laughed at when I got so excited I tripped trying to get out of my pants. They both thought I was crazy for letting myself get wet, but when I asked Alicia to fish a small bottle out of my pack, she squealed and immediately called me over to help her up. I helped Alicia stay mostly upright as we both stripped down to our undies. We each washed our own hair and scrubbed up a bit as the suds from our hair rinsed over our bodies. I didn’t turn sexual, thank god, because Madison was still there, but Alicia needed to stop looking at me like that while her mom was around.

 

We chatted here and there about our lives before and about now, like what we should eat versus what we would be eating if the world hadn’t ended or how much water we gained from the rain versus how much water we wasted doing things like washing our cars or taking long showers. There wasn’t much discussion about what was going to come next. Alicia brought it up a couple times only for Madison to change the subject a minute or two later. I knew Madison was trying to hide something or trying to gloss over something, but I didn’t push it. Well, I didn’t push it until I had to.

 

“What do you think you’re doing?” I ask, as I come upon Madison looking over the top of the ladder at the alley below.

 

She stumbles back a bit and tries to explain, “I- I was just thinking a-about Travis, my husband, Travis and- and where he might be right now.”

 

“Were you thinking about trying to go find him?” I ask, trying to keep my tone neutral.

 

Obviously, I failed, because Madison immediately becomes defensive, saying, “Of course I wasn’t. Do you think I would just abandon my daughter again, to chase some pipe dream of finding Travis?”

 

“I don’t know what to think. I just assumed since you were standing at the top of the ladder with Alicia’s pack on your shoulder you were thinking about going somewhere,” I say nonchalantly, but almost sarcastically, pointedly even.

 

“Wh-what?” Madison says, as if she’s unaware of the bag on her shoulder. She stammers a little as she continues, “I- I wasn’t actually- not really- going anywhere. I- I just…”

 

“I get it. I- I lost my mom along the way. I didn’t get any closure, she just got swallowed up by the crowd when we tried the airport, right when everyone had really started to panic and she- she never resurfaced,” I say quietly, like if I whisper it, it won’t hurt as much.

 

Madison quickly moves to my side, but hesitates before she slips an arm around my shoulder. “That- That’s why you came back for me,” she says, with a little lilt in her voice.

 

“Yeah, I didn’t want Alicia to have to wonder like I do. Even if I brought back bad news, at least she would know,” I reply, relaxing slightly into Madison’s warm embrace. I decide in that moment she gives good mom hugs and it’s been so long since I had one that I can almost get lost in it. I snap out of it though and add, “You- you shouldn’t leave. Stick with the family you have left, instead of risking everything for something you don’t even know is still out there.”

 

She nods and squeezes me a little tighter. “You’re right. I- I’ll just put this back then,” she says as she shuffles out of the embrace and moves over to set Alicia’s pack back down with mine.

 

After that, Madison doesn’t really leave Alicia’s side, not until she’s up and moving anyway. The swelling in Alicia’s ankle has gone down and the cut on her forehead is still healing, but it’s not infected so it’ll get there. The first couple of times she tries to get up to walk, it’s like her limbs just won’t hold her up and Madison or I manage to catch her each time she stumbles.

 

It’s half way through our sixth day on the roof that Alicia gets up and stays up. The first few steps shaky, but after that she’s up and moving, confidence building. The ankle is still a little tender and when I offer to re-wrap it for what feels like the 25th times in the last several days, Madison finally asks, “How are you so good at that? Are you a doctor or something?”

 

I had been wondering how long it would take one of them to notice. Alicia was always too busy watching me to be thinking about anything else while I was wrapping her ankle and for the most part I was watching her too. This may have been the first time Madison had actually watched me do this for her daughter, always walking the edge of the building, ‘keeping a watch out’ she said. “My mom was a surgeon and I was following in her footsteps. Third year med student, I was an intern in the hospital where my mom worked, almost nine months before… before,” I explain, knowing I can’t hide the sadness in my voice.

 

Madison doesn’t react immediately even though I directed my response to her. It’s Alicia who answers, simply cupping my cheek with her palm and pulling me up for a kiss. This definitely the first time she’s kissed me in front of her mother and the quiet gasp behind me is barely audible as Alicia whispers against my lips, “Dr. Lex, huh? I like the sound of that, though it does make you sound more like a supervillain instead of my hero.”

 

I laugh because I had always thought that Dr. Lex sounded like a supervillain and when I was little my mom would put on her lab coat and some big rubber gloves and chase me around like me was a mad scientist. It’s probably one of my fondest memories of her. The sadness starts to creep back in, but Alicia is right there, pulling my lips to hers again. It’s chaste and quick, but it snaps me back to the here and now and if everything that’s happened so far has lead me here, then maybe this is how it’s supposed to be. If my mom and I hadn’t gotten separated I probably would have never found my way here and Alicia and Madison would both most definitely be dead. Maybe my mom is still out there somewhere saving lives, just like me.

 

The single tear that escapes, Alicia smudges with her thumb as I finish wrapping her ankle. I glance up at her again when I’m done and there’s such joy in her eyes that I can’t not smile in response. I glance around for Madison and find she’s no longer behind me and I press forward and plant a not-so-chaste kiss to Alicia’s lips, slipping my hand behind her head, pulling her closer. She groans into my mouth at the slight use of force and good god, we really need to get off this roof so we can do something about that. I break the kiss and use every ounce of my will power not to immediately crash our lips back together. She whines quietly, but stifles it because she knows. She knows they can’t do this here. That they’ll get carried away in no time and that’s not a situation that either of us want to find ourselves in. “I know, Alicia. I know. Now that your ankle is feeling better we’re gonna be moving on. Hopefully, moving on to somewhere with rooms and beds and some f-ing privacy.”

 

She chuckles and I’m not sure if my urgent tone or the almost curse that she finds so funny, but I smile and laugh with her, like we’re not both burning up from the inside.

 

~~~

 

The next morning I bring it up. I don’t want to think about what the plan is, but there’s no enough left for dinner. The food supplies I managed to scavenge a few days ago are all gone, along with all but two small pieces of the dried horse meat and the two mystery cans. “So… any ideas about where to go when we move on from here?” I ask as we all split the last can a mixed vegetables and a half a pack of peanuts. Neither of them seem terribly forthcoming, so I add, “There’s a store in town where I’m sure we can find some more food, but it’ll take at least two of us to check it out. After we’ve hit that though I think we should try to find somewhere else to hold up. This roof seems comfy for now, but I for one would love to be sleeping under one instead on top for a while.”

 

Alicia snickers and my eyes bulge a little when I make the connection she just made. I didn’t mean for that to come out quite like that, but at least Madison seems a little to lost in thought to have noticed our little exchange. I smile at Alicia because what else am I supposed to do as she replies, “I like this plan. Anywhere with beds, I’m all for.”

 

Madison agrees, because anywhere would be better than here, obviously.

 

We pack all our things together, distributing the weight of our remaining supplies between the two bags. That’s when Alicia finds the bear from drug store, she quickly stuffs it into her pack, thinking that I won’t notice, but I immediately say, “Alicia, we agreed we’re only taking what we need, do you really need the teddy bear?”

 

She nods quickly and says, “I might need it, like if you leave again. I might need it.”

 

I cross to her and bring her in close so I can whisper, “I’m not going anywhere. I know I can’t promise something won’t happen to me, but I’m not going anywhere, voluntarily at least. We’re in this together now, right?”

 

She nods again and reaches back into the bag, pulling out the bear. “Can I use your knife a minute?”

 

I laugh nervously at the abrupt request, but I pull it out of its sheath on my hip and spin in it my hand, offering it to her handle first. I watch as she meticulously uses the tip to cut the threads attaching the little red heart to the bears paws. The bear she sets off to the side, but the heart she stuffs back done into her bag. She turns to hand me my knife back and says, “A compromise… besides, wouldn’t want to leave your heart behind, I think I might be getting attached to it myself.”


	5. Chapter 5

We make it to the street. I climb down first and secure the alley before Madison and then finally Alicia climbs down. We move quietly to the top of the alley, which is thankfully mostly blocked by burned out car. We crouch by its remains, as I check up and down the street. It’s in much the same state as it has been the last two times I made this trip. It’s really too bad we couldn’t just make a home on that roof top. Three stories are enough to be up off the street without being able to get to street level quickly, but the idea of trying to haul any sort of building material up the ladder is daunting at best. We don’t really have any other options in town that I can tell, so the plan is to find some food, either in the back room of the deli or somewhere else in town and then find a farm house or somewhere equally remote to just hold up for a while. I don’t really fancy the idea of trying to find other people, but Madison has mentioned it at least twice in the last 24 hours.

 

We maneuver out onto the street. I want to put me in between anything and Alicia and I can tell Madison feels the same way. I take up the front and Madison in the back as we move down the street, slinking along single file. There’s no movement except for us so far, but that doesn’t mean I’m not looking everywhere at once, searching all around us for any sign of danger. We make it to the corner across from the car Madison had taken refuge in before I see the first walker. When I manage to see past it though, I realize there, in fact, several on the street about another half a block down.

 

I immediately press myself up against the abandoned taxi in front of us and Alicia and Madison follow my lead. “Too many,” I whisper, before I peer over the top of the trunk to see no less than four breaking away from the others and are now moving up the street with purpose. The other four or five don’t seem to have caught on yet, but they will if we’re forced to fight those moving towards us. I wonder for a moment if this is worth the risk and I decide almost instantly that it is, because there could be all manner of food in that deli’s kitchen. I close my eyes for just a second and try to picture the things I glimpsed in the low light from the door and the flashes of images from when I actually struck my lighter. There is definitely food in there as well as other treasures I’m sure and we’re going to be the ones to find it.

 

I look between Madison and Alicia before I pull my old revolver out of the side pouch of my bag and offer it to Madison first. She cringes, but takes it. Alicia immediately reaches over and takes it from her. She shifts her hand around the grip a couple times and seems settled. I’m a little surprised, but I don’t argue. Madison has a fairly decent sized, fixed blade knife, but I offer for her to take the baseball bat too. She nods as she takes it and moves around towards the front end of the taxi. “Not unless you have to, only three,” I whisper to Alicia, and hope that she understands. She nods and takes up a position in the center of the taxi, preparing to provide rescue fire if either Madison or I get over whelmed. I pull the 9mm pistol from the clutch holster, keeping it to my left hand for better aim. My right hand isn’t as strong for using my knife, but I’d rather not have to try to draw the pistol with one of them on top of me and the gun would be mostly useless in my right hand.

 

I move around the trunk of the taxi just as the first one bumps into the other side of the car. I hear Alicia’s breath hitch and then there’s a long exhale, before the walker makes its way around the rear of the car. Maybe it wasn’t expecting us to be right there, because it barely has time to react before I push it off-balance and drive my knife into the side of its head. One down. I hear the sound of wood colliding with flesh and bone, a wet, thwack followed immediately by a slumping sound. Two down, probably. I don’t have time to look though, because there’s another coming around the taxi and this one seems pretty determined to kill us all even though it doesn’t have any arms. It tries to fall on me, but I sidestep its clumsy attempt. Its falls at Alicia’s feet instead and I glance over just in time to see her stomp down on its head with her good leg. I only watch for a split second before its three down and I’m starting to feel more confident. There’s another huffed breath and another wet thwack as Madison presumably drops number four. There’s a second thwack in quick succession and I think ‘Yep, four down.’

 

I glance up the street and, of course, we have attracted the attention of the others on the street. They’re still probably 150 yards away, plenty of time to regroup and check the dead. I move back behind the car, Madison and Alicia following suit. I check over the two closest to me and they’re really dead this time. Madison realizes pretty quickly what I’m doing and she quickly drives her knife into the skull of each one at her end to be doubly sure.

 

When the next wave reaches us, we operate much the same way, Alicia covering us from the center as we put down walker after walker. There’s one moment where I think I’m going to have to use the pistol. I hadn’t noticed that one of the windows of the taxi is busted out and that one of the doors on the other side is open. I’m dropping a particularly decayed one, when I hear Alicia’s breath hitch again, followed by the sounds of struggle, tearing clothing and grunting. I glance over to see one reaching through the broken window, grasping firmly at Alicia’s shirt. I immediately train the 9mm on the walker, and only barely manage to keep myself from firing as Alicia brings both hands together and then down onto its head. Its grip slips and she quickly takes a step back. It begins to crawl through the window at her, but when she shrieks, “Behind you!” I whip around with just enough time to get my knife in between myself and number… Eleven? Twelve? I sort of lost count around eight, so I’m just guessing now. It goes down easily enough though, slumping its weight against me. Before I can manage to push it off me, I can hear Alicia’s boot slamming down on one behind me.

 

Eventually, they stop coming and we stop fighting. I glance around to make sure in the onslaught that I didn’t miss one or let one lie that wasn’t dead. I do see a little flutter of movement in the pile of bodies at Madison’s end of the car, but before I can even point out she’s already working her way over to it to put it out of its misery. After I’m sure the ones at our feet are in fact all dead. I take a moment to survey the street again. No more movement.

 

We finish making our way to the deli without any more interruptions. I’m still cautious as we move inside, but nothing seems to have changed since I was here almost a week ago. The crawler I killed is still laying in the floor just inside the door and I can see my own footprints leading around the store. What I don’t see are any foot prints that look fresher than mine and that’s reassuring.

 

Once we’re inside, I do manage to rig up a little security for the front door, tying a piece of twine around an empty can and then attaching the other end to the door handle. The idea being that if the door moves, the can will bang against the door when it swings. Madison and Alicia simply watch from behind the counter as I move around the store looking for torch ingredients. I find an umbrella I think make work. I break off all the spokes of the umbrella part leaving just the shaft and the fabric. I wrap that around the end of the shaft and then I wrap that with a couple of rag scraps from the slop sink in the corner behind the counter. Alicia comes over with the leftover cheesecloth from her bag and I quickly wrap that around as well, using its longer length to secure all the other fabric underneath. “Now, all I need is fuel,” I mumble, rummaging around behind the counter and on the floor and on the shelves on the opposite wall and I find nothing. No oil, no alcohol, nothing I can use as fuel.

 

Madison speaks up, “What kind of fuel?”

 

I glance over her way and reply, “Cooking oil, rubbing alcohol, or even strong liquor would work. Or you know if you just happen to have a gas can full of kerosene, now would be the time to tell me about it.” I don’t mean to be sarcastic with that last bit, but it still manages to come out that way.

 

Madison snarks back, “Well, I don’t have any kerosene, but I do have this.” She pulls out a small hip flask and jiggles it in my direction.

 

“What is it?” I ask immediately, knowing lots of liquors don’t burn, and that some don’t burn as well as others.

 

“Vodka, not sure of the alcohol content though,” Madison says as she brings over the flask.

 

I raise my eyebrows a little. I wouldn’t have expected Madison to be a vodka drinker, but I chastise myself for that thought immediately, because for all I know she was keeping it around for a quick and dirty disinfectant or for something like this. She offers it and I gratefully accept. I pour about half the flask over the cotton covered end of the umbrella shaft, careful not to waste any, mostly because I’m not sure how long this one will last and I’d like to have enough fuel for a second one if we need it.

 

I move towards the swinging door and slowly pull it open. There’s no sound coming from inside, no rustling, no scraping, just stillness. I wave Madison over and whisper, “Hold this open.” I strike a match and the torch sparks to life easily. The flames are sort of mesmerizing at first, dancing blue and white, swirling and pushing against each other. It’s pretty, almost. Madison clears her throat a little and I snap out of it. I glance back at Alicia, who’s still positioned behind the counter and offer her a reassuring smile before I descend into the darkness of the back room.

 

The torch is pretty bright for being on the smaller side and I use its flickering light to quickly move around the room, checking for crawlers or gaping mouths in inopportune places. I don’t find any, so I begin my more-through sweep of the room looking for anything useful. I call over to Madison, “Send Alicia back here, all’s clear.”

 

Alicia joins me and we make quick work of searching the room. We manage to find several cans of beans of all sorts; red, kidney, pinto and white beans. There’s a can or two of stewed tomatoes. I hear Madison mumble, “Mmm, chili,” as we continue to rummage. The pile of canned goods gets pretty impressive by the time we’re done, 17 cans in total. That’s more food than I’ve seen in a long while, but we keep looking until the torch runs out.

 

When we finally are forced to move back into the front room, we definitely have enough food to move on, but the question is where are we going. I turn to Madison and Alicia as they pack the last of the food into the two packs, distributing the weight as best they can and say, “You said you two came from the north, right?”

 

Alicia nods even as Madison says, “Yes. There’s not much up that way. A couple houses here and there but nowhere worth making an effort to fortify for long term use.”

 

I find it funny that that is how Madison chose to answer, but I push past it to reply, “Well, I came up from the south, so we’re looking at east or west. Anybody got a quarter?”

 

Madison and Alicia both roll their eyes, but I’m already moving towards the cash register. The drawer has already been forced open at some point, but there are a couple coins left. I pull out a quarter and add, “Heads for west or tails for east? Alicia, you call it.”

 

I flip the coin into the air and she quickly says, “Tails,” before it hits the ground. I almost lose it in the detritus surrounding the register, but I spot it and it is tails.

 

“East it is,” I say with gusto, as I move back towards the two of them. I quickly hoist my pack onto my back. The heavy weight is a burden, sure, but it’s also a relief, so I shoulder it easily, if only so Alicia doesn’t have to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a few chapters that I may come back to later, or maybe make a part of a series. I don't know. I just hate to leave things so unfinished, as it were. Honestly, a story from the FtWD world, or really any apocalyptic world, I feel there can't realistically be a satisfying ending. Life just goes on, until it doesn't, thus the story does as well. Maybe it's better if they just move on, disappearing off into the distance, and it just ends there. What do you think?
> 
> Questions, comments, kudos?
> 
> Lez-bi-Honest, kudo and comment notification emails make my day...


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